ACHD is unique in the US that so far as I know they are one of the only highway districts that build and maintain all roads and most storm water infrastructure within a county. Whereas in most areas of the country cities have their own road departments and counties do their own thing.

With that in mind ACHD does an excellent job building and maintaining our road systems when I compare roads in other parts of the US. They also, at least in the past appeared to be a fiscal conservative pseudo govt. agency.

By the attempt to raise vehicle registration fees for vehicles under 8000 lbs while ignoring the cost of damage to our roads caused by the trucking industry and other apparent under-the-table activities I’m starting to wonder if they are becoming another agency who see taxpayers as just a means of unlimited revenue?

As was mentioned in the article by Marisa there was no decision made on the approval for the lease. Instead, that decision will have to be made by a newly seeded Commission in January. That was not just to Kick the Can down the road. That was because, if the decision had to be made at that moment, it would have been denied. There is still a lot to be discussed and decisions to be made and cost to be dialed-in much closer than they are presently before any vote is taken and any permission given to proceed with the building of a new headquarters facility. That will come after a public hearing.

” this project has not been discussed at length at public hearings”

And two of the Commissioners are all freaked out about a few erroneous emails?

District 3- Paul Woods &
District 4- Kent Goldthorpe are up for this election cycle.

As posed above, and confirmed by C Goldthorpe here that is a pretty lame excuse.

This STARTED in 2013.

So the current board should have voted and denied it.
Either it is needed or it is not.

“We don’t know after 5 years, and that’s why we are avoiding a vote.”

IF ACHD moved to a State Street location, then they would all hate their commute even more, on worst street in the county.

The owners at the CSC location have already announced that ACHD is going to occupy the building.

CSC says it is t done deal and been in the works for over 3 months.

EDITOR NOTE–this location is on Orchard where Channel 4 and Idaho DEQ are located .

I strongly disagree with moving IDOT or any State agency to the HP site.

The State Capitol, Supreme Court and many other functions are in downtown Boise. So what if legislators, when they’re here from out of town during session, want to visit those departments?

I’m sure there are many other interactions which require gov’t agencies to coordinate. Having the flung all over town, miles apart, seems like lunacy to me.

They won’t, and therefore won’t be doing their jobs.

All State gov’t offices should be near the Capitol.

CSHQA is a very experienced firm and they will do a good job if this project goes forward. The public should be wary of a cost estimate range stated by lay people without any foundation in fact when the gap in the estimates is over 100% as it is probable that both estimates are wrong. The new State of Idaho Campus and the ITD facility area examples of alternatives that are likely to be more cost effective than new construction of at least the estimated 60,000 sf office building component. Understand that ACHD has an industrial land use component that is not discussed in this article. Whether ACHD needs the industrial component to be next to the office component is not addressed and would need to be addressed in any alternative location. It should be noted that ACHD owns about 17 to 20 acres and ITD owns about 45 acres; both with existing improvements. The acquisition process of ACHD buying from ITD is likely to be lengthy and problematic. The good news is that the ACHD property is in a location in transition towards higher and better land uses, so there is likely to be a buyer at some fair market value at auction should ACHD elect to leave their current facility.

cynic – too late.
The old HP site will house the vast majority of state agencies over time. The downtown locations will only be executive offices, if those, or converted to offices to legislators.
The State is free to lease to whomever they want at whatever rates they want.

GEO: ACHD is many things, but they are definitely not fiscally conservative, nor do I think they do good job of building and maintaining our road system. I don’t fault them for this, however, as they’re not very different from every other road-building & maintaining agency in the USA. The problem is we build our roads and cities in a financially unsustainable way – the layout of our city is itself unsustainable in the long term, at least by the measurements that ACHD acts to spend money on. For example, the stated reason for the registration fee increase ‘ask’ is to fund the capitol improvements plan, which will, among other things, rebuild & expand many busy intersections and roadways in Ada county – the bulk of these are widening 2/3-lane roads to 5-lane roads. Roadway level of service on these roads drives the spending, in an attempt that it will reduce congestion. This reasoning financially irresponsible because ACHD (and every other road building agency in the US) knows that expanding capacity doesn’t permanently reduce congestion, it’s an unrealistic goal. In turn, the temporary relief in congestion that it provides allows and encourages further traffic-adding development, that is most usually built in a similarly financially unsustainable way. ACHD appears to do better than other places only because it’s ‘newer’ than other places.

You know how when you decided to sell something you stop investing in it! That is how HP treated the property that the State purchased from them! Could you imagine if Dave Bieter controlled repair for YOUR ROAD?

I am curious – – – if ACHD is not the best model what is? Letting a spend, spend, spend, control the world and tax like h_ll mayor and council do it? Does not sound very good to me!

EDITOR NOTE–The model is OK, but the same petty politics that costs us cash in the city, county governments, CCDC is the killer. The GUARDIAN has tried to create interest and awareness at the local level, but it is nearly impossible to find candidates or citizens in significant numbers to insure a level of quality governance.

East..that woukd give the BOCC something else to do. Maybe they would actually earn their money.

Garner & Co. needs another building project – end of story.

Bribe the local officials and complain if they don’t get the contract they go under they most certainly will.

Moving state services to the HP campus voids a lot of rental property the state has been using for years. I doubt they have room for ACHD in their plans.

They are buying the bar because they vacated their old Police Officers club in Military Reserve and needed a spot with a liquor license to replace it. The city has the property already on 17th St. and it’s near the river for a police substation. Buying a bar makes sense since the BPD association used to have one. Only time will tell what will really happen there.

City/County/State admins think the average person (taxpayer) is very gullible. George Carlin said it best: Honesty may be the best policy, but it’s important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy. If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse.

EDITOR NOTE–The GUARDIAN will try to make a tasty salad of your “apples and oranges” in a post later today.